Verdict in the Tornado Cash Case: Founder Convicted of “Illegal Money Transfer Operations,” Open-Source Tools and Legal Boundaries Under Scrutiny

Tornado Cash Accused of Assisting North Korean Hackers in Money Laundering

Defense Emphasizes: Storm Did Not Actively Enable Hackers

Support from the Crypto Developer Community

Tornado Case May Become a Turning Point for Open Source Developers

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Tornado Cash, co-created by Roman Storm, of being long-term abused by hackers and becoming a hotspot for money laundering. The prosecution claims that the platform has facilitated the laundering of over $1 billion, including millions of dollars transferred by the sanctioned North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. In closing arguments, prosecutors stated that Roman Storm was not only aware of the platform’s misuse by hackers but also profited millions of dollars from it, essentially condoning the ongoing illegal activities.

In contrast, Roman Storm’s defense attorney emphasized that the defendant never encouraged or actively assisted hackers, and when the team learned that North Korean hackers were using Tornado Cash, they were shocked and emotional, stating it was “definitely not a cause for celebration” and not a malicious involvement. The attorney further stated that Roman Storm merely developed a neutral privacy tool and should not be held criminally liable for its misuse as an open-source tool.

Roman Storm’s predicament has sparked widespread controversy within the crypto community. The DeFi advocacy organization DeFi Education Fund issued a statement pointing out that this case poses a threat to all open-source developers, as it distorts the boundaries of responsibility developers should have in non-custodial protocols: “Our position is clear: developers of peer-to-peer protocols do not control user assets and do not constitute financial institutions in the traditional sense, and should not be viewed as illegal remittance operators.” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also expressed support for Storm in a post on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this January, stating that he was the one who suggested developing Tornado Cash and emphasized, “At Ethereum, we protect each other’s honor and will not let our own face the storm alone.”

Some guilty verdicts in this case have drawn attention from many developers and legal observers regarding its potential consequences. Particularly, just days ago, two founders of another mixing tool, Samourai Wallet, chose to plead guilty to similar charges, indicating that U.S. judicial entities are gradually tightening the boundaries of whether “crypto mixing tools constitute financial institutions.” As the sentencing for Roman Storm’s case and the potential retrial of two other charges remain uncertain, it remains to be seen whether this case will become a critical judicial watershed for open-source crypto developers.